LOST: Three deathballs, respond to Kuikuro, Korea, and Haiti, if found please notify the nearest PR. [Shaggy's note: we are definitely working on updating these]

Msurdej: With a surprise snipe from the Yup'ik, Cixi and the QIng are out at 44th place. While the loss to Yup'ik might be shocking, the loss of the Qing is not. The Qing's decline has been a long time time coming in the CBRX, starting out in the crowded region of China. And while Cixi was originally the most likely to succeed of the Qing, the Qin, and the Xia (remember the Xia?), it quickly became second banana to the Qin. And this banana would get moldier and moldier as the Qin and Khamugs closed them out of Asia, forcing new settlements to be made in Kamchatka. In the end, these settlements would be where Cixi spent her final days as the Empress of the Qing, forced out of China by the Qin, and finally torn apart by the Shikoku and Yup'ik.

Cloudberg: Today, we pay respects to Tokhtamysh, who has left the cylinder once and for all to join us in the submarine. The Golden Horde in real life stretched far across the steppes of Central Asia and Russia, but in the CBR, it was not to be. Tokhtmysh found his expansion options curtailed early on as Palmyra and the Goths locked him into the Caucasus region, an area too small to allow him to break out against his more powerful neighbours. Although the Goths tried and failed to invade the Golden Horde several times, Alaric's superior production eventually gave him the upper hand, and Tokhtamysh's capital finally fell in the enlightenment era. From there, several more wars slowly picked off his remaining cities, until he found himself exiled to Merv, a city he took from the Seljuqs a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It's only ironic that the nearly landless Seljuqs have outlived one of the civs that caused their downfall.

Msurdej: Over the past 14 parts, the the Seljuqs have gone up 13 points. Have they improved at all during this time? Barely. The real reason for the rise of Alp Arslan is the fall of other civs. Between the Qing, Haiti, Czechia, and various other civs, the ground floor of the Seljuqs has risen with each dead civ. Will there come a time when the Seljuq empire finally crumbles. Absolutely. But for now, Alp gets to ride the train to the 2nd highest place he's ever gotten.

Doom: Great news for Aztec fans as it looks like New Zealand of all people will save them from Tonga time. While they aren't safe yet it looks like Tonga will be too distracted to press the war further. The Aztecs final city is uniquely vulnerable, not just to Tonga but to anyone with a navy in the Pacific so it's not hard to see them getting eliminated soon anyway.

LonelyRollingStar: And so it begins. The hands of fate begin to slow in their turning, the doomsday clock inexorably approaches midnight, the sand at the top of the hourglass starts running out. I am referring, of course, to the inevitable final removal of Theodora from the game at last. The culling has well and truly begun in earnest, now, with five civs eradicated in the past three parts, and it wouldn’t be too unexpected were the last vestige of the Holy Roman Empire to fall next. Dreadfully far behind in tech, surrounded on all sides by significant neighbors, one war and a few turns is all that separates the free city of Brno from vassalage – or, hell, an outright colonial outpost, given the amount of peacekeepers buzzing around the city like moths attracted to a distant flame. This case, however, may be the only one where the moths make the flame look more attractive. When people refer to the concept of a hopeless civ, one devoid of any further opportunities, they do not mean the Parthias and Indias of the world. Those civs are rubbish, sure, and their in-game progress has stalled never to pick up, but they, at least, could put a respectable fight when the reaper comes knocking. The HRE doesn’t even have that. They, essentially, exist as nothing more than empty space, a vacant plot for any old nation to claim as their own. Go on, look at somebody, anybody else. It doesn’t get less interesting than this.

Gragg: Muscovy has a coalition brewing against them. We may see the long awaited eulogy sooner rather than later. A shame too cause they had a cool UA if they could ever have gotten going.

Doom: The Turks rise another 2 places as more accessible civs die in more interesting parts of the cylinder. The Turks didn't even show up this episode, which by all accounts is a success for them. This also marks the highest rank the Turks have ever reached.

Lacsirax: This is one of those write ups you probably skip to get to the good ones. I can't say I'd blame you. So instead of talking about the Nenets, let me talk about the Vauli Piettomin character model, which I already knew was taken from a film. But I found out which film it was! It's called The Legend of Sarila and boy it looked boring. It's actually about three Inuit folk who, uh, are on a journey somewhere and, um... well, not much else. Our man is called Markussi and he's a shaman, obviously. And hey, is that the Yup'ik guy? Oh wow, I think two CBRX leaders are from this film. I guess it's fitting that this incredibly unspectacular film represents these two civilizations.

Gragg: The border gore is real. We knew from the very beginning that Nepal would be one of the biggest contributors to border gore in CBRX. Now they’re in three separate pieces and have given Kazakhs a city separate from the rest of their realm. One important detail I need to point out. The Nepal are at war with Qin. Qin has a carpet of paratroopers nearby. One can be seen at the north of this image.

Shaggy: For a very well narrated part in my opinion (shoutouts to u/bluesox), we only got one mention of Beta Israel: a teaser for war. Benin and the Goths have declared on the Chad, though neither of them will be able to do much in the war. Beta Israel’s lands (or what’s left of them) are easily carpeted with an army, but even an out-of-date army will still prevent peacekeepers or paratroopers. Benin, however, is inundated with Madagascan (Madascarian? Madagascor? Madagascian?) units on its BI front, and the Goths look to just be playing politics with their declaration as they would have to go through Palmyra to get anything near the Chad. Gudit rises one rank this week as they have not yet fully imploded, just sitting there as a rump for Zimbabwe or Palmyra to take soon.

Gragg: Big news from Canton this week as they fend off the rogue Nenet fleet from the Pacific. With that massive threat out of the way they’ve improved their military strength by nearly doubling it. Their production increased by 25% as well. Now that all hardly matter as they are still neighbors to some threatening giants and have little hope left outside of staying alive. At least they’re raising the bar for what a runt is though.

LonelyRollingStar: Well, that sure went bad rather quickly. Seddon sneezed, looked up, and found that he had managed to conquer half of Selk’nam on his own from an ocean away, and went back to the altogether more interesting and multifaceted Tongan conquest he was focused on before his allergies hit. And, really, it’s hard to blame him: Selk’nam hasn’t just caved to New Zealand, they’ve crumbled. In what seems as clear a passing of the Southern Pacific CBRX Fan Favorite Championship Belt as any, the former darlings of the cylinder have now been kicked back over the Andes with little more than a whimper, only a single settlement on peacekeeper life support left of the side the kiwis could reasonably target. Not too long ago, they seemed the best bet to conquer Uruguay, an intriguing UA mixing with a war-suited start and initial aggression to create the closest thing the monolith up north ever had to an exciting fight. Now, they’re little more than a dead civ walking, and the vultures of the world have begun circling. It wouldn’t take much to remove Lovecraft’s own from the world entirely, now. Hell, even this war alone could be enough to bring them to an end, should New Zealand find a way to launch swarms of paratroopers over the mountain range. All we can do now is wait, prime our eulogies, and pray to the outer gods they’re put out of their misery before they become a city-state.

Lacsirax: If were a betting woman (or if I still took part in the Prediction Contest), Tonga would be the one civ I wouldn't be touching this episode. Being squashed on two sides by two mathematically stronger opponents should equal certain death, right? And yet the collective ranking body have only tentatively dropped them three ranks, above unthreatened semi-rumps like Canton, along with the Selk'nam, who are only at war with one of the two civs currently invading Tonga. While the chances of a Tongan turnaround are slim, they've a few invisible lifelines. The Nazca may have a decent military, but it's concentrated in paratroopers, a unit that's useless against Tonga's one tile islands; their navy is already almost exhausted. And New Zealand, as mentioned before, are otherwise engaged - and look increasingly vulnerable to an opportunist strike from old rivals Australia or Taungoo. Nuku'alofa will almost certainly return to Tongan hands next turn, and it's a toss up if it'll fall again, as the Kiwi navy is a hodge-podge of outdated ranged units, submarines and embarked tanks, with the occasional useful unit thrown in along the way.

There's life in them yet, then? Well, the parts are getting longer, and it equally wouldn't surprise me if thirty turns was all it took for the veneer of a functioning defense to be completely cast aside. A bet on -Tonga would be very risky, but potentially very rewarding.

Aaron: The Yup'ik got a kill! Amazing! With a snipe on Changsha, Yup'ik is officially the killer of Qing It's true that Qin did the vast majority of the work and then Shikoku only did clean up on the 2 city rump and then Yup'ik was barely helping with the clean up but never mind it still counts as a kill! Oh what's that? Killing a civ gives you warmonger penalties? And your neighbour the Metis have the second largest army in the cylinder? And they did actually declare war on you 3 turns ago and look set to crush you with paratroopers? Oh dear. The Yup'ik have invited their ally Shikoku into their lands to peacekeep for them and maybe save them from the wrath of the Metis but there are really not that many peacekeepers so it's unclear how well they'll actually protect the Yup'ik. The terrain is still really tough so it is fairly likely that at some of the Yup'ik cities survive due to being on inaccessible islands or behind mountains or something but this is still really bad. I expect we'll see a new rump to replace the Qing soon!

Lacsirax: Since Part 17, Nubia have been cycling through a tiny range of ranks from 29-33. It's not hard to see why we predict they'll finish almost exactly midtable; they're arguably the world's biggest rump state, powerless to affect the major players surrounding them, but too obnoxiously carpeted to quickly snuff out. The only point of interest is whether they'll make it to Endgame - not because it will give them any chance of a comeback, but because it might inhibit a runaway Zimbabwean victory, or a surprisingly comfortable Benin. Until then, Nubia will continue to serve only as the minimap's ugliest colour and a power ranker's nightmare assignment.

Lunar: Holy bucket of marbles; Shiko-karen has opted to take off the +2 Belt of Restraint and basically threw their spare army at Evenks and evaporated them like water. This is proof in what I said that despite how exciting this game is that not having armies clog every tile makes late game wars actually exciting and we might be seeing the proof of it. In a weird way; the smaller you become the better it is to carpet as you can relax and build your yields relying on specialists while your enemies struggle to fight you. In addition, it's impossible for atom bombs to be dropped on you without the Civ having to declare on all Civs in the effective range. This might, secretly be the worst decision the Evenks have ever made.

Overall; expect this war to die in the next two turns or prepare to glance to your F-key and keep it in the pre-primed state. Chances of death though, can be considered low if we don't see walls upon walls of Shikokan paratroopers push deep.

Gragg: While it may seem like the war with Sami is the big news this episode, it doesn’t actually matter much for the Manx. With the Vikings naval carpet Sami doesn’t have any way to reach the Manx. At least not with any force capable of capturing a city. As for that +5 jump, I really don’t know. Just look at some of the civs right below them though. Tonga, Evenks, Selk’nam, etc. One of the biggest rank increases we’ve seen in a while may just be from failures of other civs.

Cloudberg: Madagascar holds 27th place for the fourth straight episode, which might be a record for any civ outside the top or bottom 10. The reasons are simple: Ranavalona hasn't done shit in ages. While her peacekeepers from various eras are scattered over many other civilizations, they aren't dense enough in any one location to pull a Brazil, and their only real neighbour is Zimbabwe. As a result, Madagascar has no path forward whatsoever, so they sit in between the civs that are totally screwed and the civs that I would call mid-tier.

Msurdej: WE GOT IT BOYS. Indira Gandhi now has completed the Manhattan Project, and now has nukes. I repeat, the civ with one of, if not the highest nuke use, now has nukes. And with a war against the Khamugs well underway, we could soon see nuclear fallout across the northern Himalayas and southern steppes. Will it be another to make India a regional power? Probably not, that time has passed. But it will make for interesting content? Hopefully.

Cloudberg: The main news from Parthia this episode is that they finally killed the Golden Horde, which everyone saw coming, so here's some analysis instead. I've been ranking Parthia higher than most simply because they're one of the few civs filled with their own carpet and not someone else's. That means they can't have their lands pillaged or their cities captured by visiting foreign militaries, and they have a solid unit base with which to defend themselves. That makes Parthia a civ I'm confident will reach Endgame, whereas some civs that might be better on paper have certain glaring weaknesses that could see them collapse before we get there. However, there's plenty of disagreement about Parthia, as others point out their subpar stats, particularly production and technology.

Aaron: Nothing much happened to Benin this part which is why their rank stayed the same. They are the original inventors of the strategy that has become popular throughout the entire world, that being hiring peacekeepers to defend your lands so that you don't have to. Even the Iroquois are using it to great effect to protect themselves from Uruguay. And Benin are of course still experts in this strategy, which is pretty good as they are trapped between Zimbabwe and the Moors, two civs who could annihilate them if they wanted to and could get passed the peacekeepers. They do have another neighbour called Nubia who are much much weaker and have awful tech, so that could in theory be an expansion route if Benin ever found space in their own lands to build up their army. But yeah, it doesn't look like anything will change for Benin until endgame unless a lot of open borders get cancelled at the same time.

Cloudberg: Despite losing several major cities to Venezuela, the Apache stay put this episode, clinging on to 23rd—which, I will remind you, is now in the bottom half. Geronimo's lands are starting to look pathetically small compared to his neighbours, and his territory is carpeted by foreign units—a war with Australia or the Nazca could be devastating. Although the peacekeepers make it unlikely that Venezuela will push farther, the damage has been done, as the Apache have lost several core cities that they're unlikely to regain.

Gragg: The war is back on! Zimbabwe peacekeepers have cleared out so Prussia and the Goths can once again fight. Sort of. Maybe. Metis has moved into Vladimir to prevent most of the fighting but not as much as last episode. Of course by the time many units die the war will be over. Most wars are over by this point. In fact, the complete lack of damage to units and cities despite the bombers in Vladimir suggest we may have missed a peace notification. Past Goths, the Vikings are still very much a threat. The only easy expansion option is Muscovy. Luckily a bit of a coalition is brewing against Muscovy, so Prussia might just be pulled into it.

Shaggy: A low-key, if not completely silent, part from Venice this week and they don’t move in the ranks. They are definitely contributing to the peacekeeper problem (or boon, if you are a citizen of the cylinder) due to their relatively high production for their rank coupled with a lack of tiles to put their units and apparent inability to actually conquer anywhere that isn’t Minoan or Turkish. Personally, I think they’re well positioned in Europe if they can continue to not be consumed by the Moors and Vikings. Just please expand Dandolo, please. Maybe the HRE declaration this part will help?

Doom: The Goths continue to drop in the rankings although little changed this part. With peacekeepers everywhere the options are running out for everyone across the cylinder, especially in land civs like the Goths. Even without peacekeepers, Alaric was beginning to run out of options. Fortunately for the Goths, the Kazakhs are distracted and similarly suffering from peacekeepers. Prussia remains their best option but they just made peace. Until other civs kindly move their units out of the way don't expect much from the Goths.

Aaron: Nazca lose 2 ranks to Haida and New Zealand. Despite successful conquests of Tonga, New Zealand is doing the same thing but better and thus rises to over Nazca. As for Haida they, uh, well they didn't do anything so uh, yeah. The conquest of Tonga does not really help their chances at winning, because they are still stuck on the same continent as Uruguay who could annihilate their entire empire if Nazca ever do anything that might anger Uruguay. Venezuela is of course a lot easier to beat than Uruguay but are still stronger than Nazca, and hence not a good option either, and although Pacific islands could help in building up a decent Pacific navy, it seems unlikely to be enough to beat Venezuela who control the Cumana canal to bring in constant reinforcements from the Caribbean. As for using the Pacific as a staging point for a future invasion of New Zealand, Taungoo or Shikoku... err, no, just no. That's not going to work. So what does owning a bunch of Tongan islands do for Nazca? Well, it means that if they get booted off South America, they will still have a place to live as a rump! A retirement plan is always a great idea for a midtier civ to have because it means they can continue to gain ranks well after they have been taken out!

Gragg: We’ve been joking for a long time about Haida’s strong navy and aversion to land. All kidding aside though it's a massive problem for the Haida’s success in North America. Luckily they can still have some great success in the Pacific if they play their cards right. Imagine if they had Tonga of New Zealand as a start location. Would’ve been fun to see.

Gragg: One of the most anticipated rematches on the cylinder occurred this part between New Zealand and Tonga. After a slow start New Zealand has a definite upper hand. Now that Tonga’s military, their production simply won’t be able to keep pace. New Zealand could make some massive gains in this war. Don’t get too excited though, because they are incredibly vulnerable back at their core. In other good news, New Zealand secured massive gains in South America. In a few parts all of these new city captures will boost New Zealand’s stats quite a lot. If they can keep them.

Gragg: Venezuela continues to bulk up amidst the chaos in the region. Gains from the war with Haiti are starting to show up in their stats and more gains are being made to the North. In fact, Venezuela gained 4 cities this part, putting them in 11th of that metric. The major factor holding Venezuela down is the power of their neighbors. Both Iroquois, Uruguay, and Shikoku are dangerously close and Venezuela still can’t take any of them. For now they’re doing exactly what they need to though by taking advantage of the expansion opportunities they do have.

LonelyRollingStar: Ah, yes. This is how it always starts. There’s a war against a weak neighbor, optimism, high hopes for bloodletting in the future. Then you forget to bring a melee unit, spend several parts as a laughingstock, and come out the other side hopelessly behind your superpower peers in a region where even the slightest disadvantage could lead to you watching Endgame from the afterlife. In a panic, you enlist another power to help you get something out of the war the next time you try it… and watch as they steal your kills, turn around, and send you into a tailspin you’ll never recover from. Maratha’s grand display of futility against what should be an easily conquered rump state continues, and takes what may, perhaps, be its most unfortunate twist yet. You see, Maratha has gotten the Qin to help them out this time around. The Qin. Who have paratroopers. Maratha still doesn’t have a melee unit, by the way. They do have planes, though. So, you know, in a few turns there will be a bunch of Nepalese cities at death’s door basically begging for someone to come in and take them, and, doubtless, lots of empty space from dead units for the Qin to slide right into. Tl;dr: Maratha’s essentially given the Qin an open invitation to set up a nice little foothold right on the edge of their territory. Nothing bad can come of this, nope.

Lunar: There’s not much to say about Palmyra other than she’s been a great host for many of the roaming Uruguayan vagabonds! Aside from that, Palmyra has abandoned her military. Cavalry park next to the anti-air tanks and they show no desire to construct more troops when Information Era units clog their lands. Ending open borders would be the next way forward, but without doubt I know that Palmyra would reaccept a mutual open borders.

I’d recommend declaring on Madagascar, but I don’t see the energy in Palmyra. Expect them to drop unless they seriously get it together. What do I expect? I expect many rumps to die around Palmyra with her only being the victor of a few capitals which will get her hated enough for Uruguay to cancel open borders, and then she tries and fails to take Nubia. Mark my words.

Shaggy: Qin finally starts the invasion of Nepal, and with the help of Maratha they might actually get something out of- wait, of course the mountains are in the way. In the age of paratroopers, this might not be the biggest issue, but it definitely doesn’t help. They drop a rank this week as a result of the Fat Boi Surge, but their standing in Asia is more or less the same. I’d expect them to try to start something with the Khamugs if they don’t get attacked by Shikoku soon, or at least I hope they do. Also of note, enough original capitals are around to take that their UA could be of import sometime soon… Just a thought.

Doom: The Khamugs continue their hard fought and region defining war with India by making no progress whatsoever. This was a bad part for the khamugs overall as their best target, the Evenks, are losing cities fast and to Shikoku of all civs. While Shikoku aren't well positioned to win a land war against the Khamugs they're certainly a tougher opponent than the Evenks would have been. They can still do damage to any civ they can reach if they wanted to. The sooner peace is reached with India and the Khamugs can focus on something else the better at this point. Even Nepal would be a better target.

Lunar: Army size big; brain small. As we see Sami accelerate into irrelevance taking a quick turn into sadness. Parking up next to the Manx tier of disappointment with a Kazakh level of expected relevance despite a Czech amount of competency. And all of those Civs have something more to talk about them than the Sami.

Okay, time for serious talks. This is how Sami can win this. Declare war on Vikings; let their ancient navy grind against your more advanced one, banish Taungoo from your lands and just carpet the seas until they grind themselves out of existence. Rely on your great army, park it to the border and accept no prisoners. But unfortunately, you’re an AI so good luck!

Lunar: Now, countries deploy their army to the front. Empires hire a foreign army to defend their homelands. Moorish Dynasties create walls of peacekeeping units to surround them. With literally no ways out thanks to Qin, Taungoo and Zimbabwean units; they could focus on projecting their power out. With an insanely impressive navy consisting of gigantic swaths of melee Destroyers; an arguably overpowered unit capable of swarming no health cities and flipping them endlessly.

If the Moors could anger their neighbours, forcing them to denounce Moors and deny open borders due to low relations, and we could be seeing an opposite Evenks where they have the army to attack but cannot move it. If they had a chance, I could expect Venice to fall like a house of cards. Overall, I expect them to make sick gains abroad and make border gains only if they piss over every single person nearby. In this world, it benefits to yell and demean your neighbours. A chaotic neutral paradise.

Gragg: I’ve been Australia’s biggest critic for a long while (and still think they’re overrated), but I can’t deny they’ve been making a lot of right moves lately. Their stats have been remarkable the past few episodes. This episode they gains slowed down somewhat but they are in a commanding position. New Zealand is weak and distracted and there a very juicy 100+ pop city nearby. Now I can’t complete an Australia without ragging on them a little. Their naval bias is very low for a civ in this location. Expect their expansion to slow significantly after they take all of Australia.

Msurdej: WIGGITY-WHAT? After ten parts of languishing in the bottom half of the top 20, the Metis have come roaring back into the top 10. Why you ask? Simple: Paratroopers. The Metis army is currently the 2nd largest in the world (right after Zimbabwe), and while it might not be as technologically advanced as Uruguay's its more than enough to outclass the Yup'ik. And with the Yup'ik having the blood of the Qing on their hands, it seems unlikely that anyone will complain about Riel sending paratroopers to roll over Apaanugpak. And with the Apache and Iroquois tied down with wars and peacekeepers, Riel has little to lose with this campaign.

LonelyRollingStar: Chaos in the tier below the top one produces a completely unjustified one rank rise for Ragnar. Moving on. Yes, the Vikings had, surprise, yet another slow part this week, doing so little even the narrator saw fit to comment on the amount of little they were doing. It’s not hard to fault those shaking their screens yelling for the Vikings to do something – the Manx and Venice would fall to the orange-hued berserkers easily, and Prussia wouldn’t be far behind. Consider as well Sami’s slowly slipping out of superpower tier and the Moors’ getting peacekeepered to oblivion, and there’s legitimate cause to consider the Vikings top dog in Europe, especially now that they’ve finally gotten those foreign exchange troops out with a carpet of their own. (Sure, it’s one made of subs, but at least it’s their carpet and not somebody else’s.) And, you know what? I’m in the same boat as those screen-shakers. Attack, Vikings. Show Europe what you’re made of. Make the continent regret dismissing you before your wars in Britain and regret ever disregarding plane spam as a strategy. The time is now, Ragnar. Make Europe bleed once more.

Msurdej: Sorry Shikoku fans. This week, Ryoma takes a bit of a tumble out of the top 5, as they get the glory of eliminating a civ sniped out from them by the Yu'pik. To let off their anger at this, they begin a surprising war against the Evenks. And even more surprisingly; they're winning. Three cities have already fallen to Shikoku paratroopers, and more cities are being peppered by paratroopers and planes. What remains to be seen though, is how Sakamoto holds on to these gains. If his hold is tenuous, then Jamukha could concieveably take all the hard work off Shikoku's hands, leaving Ryoma in a hard spot.

Aaron: KAZAKHSTAN, GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, ALL OTHER COUNTRIES ARE RUN BY LITTLE GIRLS! KAZAKHSTAN NUMBER ONE BEELINER OF MEMETICS, ALL OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE INFERIOR MEMES.

KAZAKHSTAN, HOME OF NUCLEAR DEVICES. THEIR NUMBER 74 AND MILITARY SCORE 900000. DEVASTATION POTENTIAL A MARVEL TO BEHOLD. IT REMOVE 80 PERCENT OF NEIGHBOURS' CITIES.

KAZAKHSTAN, KAZAKHSTAN YOU VERY NICE PLACE. FROM PLAINS OF TURKISTAN TO NORTHERN FENCE OF NENETSIA. KAZAKHSTAN FRIEND OF ALL EXCEPT EVENKS. THEY VERY ILLITERATE PEOPLE THAT WE ARE CURRENTLY DELETING.

KAZAKHSTAN INDUSTRY 7TH BEST IN WORLD. WE INVENTED HYBRID DRONES AND BUILT TOKYO SKY TOWER. KAZAKHSTAN PEACEKEEPERS MOST PARATROOPERS IN THE REGION. BOTH METIS AND OF COURSE OUR ALLY SHIKOKU.

KAZAKHSTAN, KAZAKHSTAN YOU VERY NICE PLACE. FROM PLAINS OF TURKISTAN TO NORTHERN FENCE OF NENETSIA. COME SUPPORT OUR MIGHTY KAZAKHSTAN! TOP 5 POWER RANKINGS BUT MOST OF ALL IT BE VERY VERY FUN!

Lacsirax: We didn't see much from Taungoo this week, so here's some excerpts from a tourist site I found for Taungoo.

Taungoo (also spelled Toungoo), a busy city on the highway, is a popular overnight stopover for both tourists and truckers. There are many interesting temples, a vibrant central market, a romantic lake scene. It has more noteworthy places than any other city on the Yagon-Mandalay line, but there is not much competition from each other. An excellent guest house on the outskirts of the city easily catches visitors one more day. Moreover, this place is also used as a base for visiting elephant camps in the western hills.

In 2010, a new impressive door has been erected as well as the king’s enormous statue. Visitors shouldn’t miss when moving on the old stretch from Yangon to Mandalay, east of The palace walls. This area is also known for its large palm. In Myanmar, when someone receives unexpected good luck, they are compared as one who gets paid for a trip to Taungoo. In addition to visiting the sights, it will be very funny to rent a bike and spend half a day cycling around town attractions and countryside.

Gragg: This was a disastrous or amazing part for the Iroquois depending on it you look at the slides or the spreadsheets. By the slides, the war with Uruguay is going awfully. They’re losing cities in North America and have lost all Caribbean holdings. Their carpet is gone and is quickly being replaced by useless peacekeepers. Metis is bulked up waiting for a moment to strike. By the spreadsheets, they moved up to 1st in cities and 1st in production somehow. Yes, they have a net gain of cities this episode. Military is the big stain as they slip all the way down to 12th while Metis moves to 2nd biggest. Moral of the story is: they’ll be fine if they can peace out soon and rebuild that carpet. Otherwise, they could quickly lose a large number of coastal cities.

Cloudberg: Uruguay almost retook first place this part; in fact, had one more ranker put Uruguay above Zimbabwe, they would have. Lavalleja's tech edge is hard to deny: Uruguay is fielding extremely advanced units like mech artillery, XCOMs, and the fearsome Nexus, but with the world so clogged with units, they don't seem to be helping. The war with the Iroquois proved inconclusive not because Hiawatha truly matched Uruguay on the battlefield, but because there are too many damn units in the way.

Shaggy: Hey CBRX, I heard you like units, so I put units around your units so your units can’t kill other units and the cylinder fills up with units! Chief Peacekeeper Mutota’s primary mentions this week come in the form of peacekeepers. With units in Asia, North America, and parts of the Caribbean, Zimbabwe has a better intel system than a fully upgraded spy network. Can I use my PR status to commission OC of Mutota as a beholder? Please somebody do that. Jokes aside, Zimbabwe is looking frightening. Top military, top 5 production, top 5 city count, top 5 science, and entirely outclassing their neighbors. At this point, I think they might have the peacekeeper strength alone to start taking exclaves out of more northern portions of the map (looking at you North America). Giff moar border gore plz.